Clickbait advertising on the forum

[DelW]

Similarly, I don't think I've seen any of the dubious ones since you acted - and they were very prolific beforehand. Much appreciated.

 

[Kite159]

Indeed, it's a lot better now.

Shame the worst website for such adverts now is BR Fares

 

[DelW]

Some of the dubious ones that were on here (TV presenters' "bikini" pictures, Amish women "revealing all") are now popping up on Realtime Trains. The advertisers must be targeting the railway nerd market!

 

[najaB]

Some of the dubious ones that were on here (TV presenters' "bikini" pictures, Amish women "revealing all") are now popping up on Realtime Trains. The advertisers must be targeting the railway nerd market!

Insert comment about the overlap between train enthusiasts and single men...

 

[DelW]

Insert comment about the overlap between train enthusiasts and single men...

I couldn't possibly comment

 

[jfollows]

I seem to be asked to “accept cookies” more frequently than I used to be. Being asked more than once is irritating anyway, why don’t you remember what I said last time you asked? But it’s part of the dumbing-down and government interference with the Internet so I don’t blame this site directly.

 

[najaB]

I seem to be asked to “accept cookies” more frequently than I used to be. Being asked more than once is irritating anyway, why don’t you remember what I said last time you asked?

That preference would be stored in a cookie...

But it’s part of the dumbing-down and government interference with the Internet so I don’t blame this site directly.

It's actually more about the government protecting consumers from corporations.

 

[Leyland Bus]

The recent ones advertising (and depicting) sports clothing for women have been a welcome distraction!!

 

[jfollows]

That preference would be stored in a cookie...
It's actually more about the government protecting consumers from corporations.

I don’t need this kind of “protection”, thank you very much. But again I don’t blame this site for complying with ridiculous laws.

 

[najaB]

I don’t need this kind of “protection”, thank you very much.

You might not, but many do have a problem with corporations using tracking cookies to build huge (potentially incorrect*) profiles about individual people based on their online behaviour.

*For example, there is some evidence that Automated Employment Decision Tools use data from advertisers' tracking cookies as part of their decision-making process. There have been claims (obviously denied) out of the USA that women have been passed over for jobs because they were searching for baby-related items and the system decided that they were about to start a family (with the associated impact on the company health insurance).

 

[stadler]

Martin Lewis scam adverts have begun appearing on this forum over the last few days. These have been all over Facebook and Twitter and Youtube recently and he often warns about it himself. But first time i have seen it on this forum. I have seen it at least fifteen to twenty times on the forum today and yesterday.



When you click the advert it takes you to a hilariously bad laughable fake BBC news page:

https://stilnest.cc/?subid2=788562807839&subid3=www.railforums.co.uk&subid4=23369963902&subid5=185411371170&gad_source=5&gad_campaignid=23369963902&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIwrnOt_zEkQMVqgvrBB2DCSLKEAEYASAAEgLsQ_D_BwE

It is an entire fake BBC news article about an interview that never happened where Martin Lewis reveals a secret to getting rich quick. It is just a scam to get you to "invest" in a scam site that will steal all your money and of course Martin Lewis has no involvement. All those comments from "customers" at the botton of the page are fake reviews. It is just a massive scam.



It would be great if the forum could try to block these adverts too if the forum admin staff have the ability to do so.

 

[najaB]

When you click the advert it takes you to a hilariously bad laughable fake BBC news page

That is impressively bad!

 

[Mike395]

With a bit of luck those should hopefully be blocked!

 

[DelW]

Quite apart from the obvious "too good to be true" red flags, the repeated references to "cell phones" on what was supposedly a BBC interview with a British interviewee, is something of a giveaway. Unfortunately one day the scammers will get wise to these nuances and become more convincing.

 

[Steddenm]

Quite apart from the obvious "too good to be true" red flags, the repeated references to "cell phones" on what was supposedly a BBC interview with a British interviewee, is something of a giveaway. Unfortunately one day the scammers will get wise to these nuances and become more convincing.

Plus the fact you can't withdraw £4,000 from an ATM as purported on the fake Barclays Bank statement.

 

[najaB]

Plus the fact you can't withdraw £4,000 from an ATM as purported on the fake Barclays Bank statement.

Normally, no. But it is possible to have your daily withdrawal limit increased (I had mine increased from £200 to £500). That said, I don't know if there is a hard upper limit.

 

[pdq]

I recommend using the Brave browser on a phone, as it manages to suppress the ads very cleanly. I expect other such browsers are also available, but Brave has worked for me since Tapatalk was abandoned.

 

[Mike395]

I recommend using the Brave browser on a phone, as it manages to suppress the ads very cleanly. I expect other such browsers are also available, but Brave has worked for me since Tapatalk was abandoned.

Whilst not our only source of revenue nowadays, ads still remain a large part of how the forum is funded. We try and be respectful with ad placement, so we'd ask that users consider not actively blocking our ads.

 

[adc82140]

I recommend Ghostery: you can whitelist certain sites to allow ads (I do for that for this site and a couple of others) and it seems to keep the spammy ads away.

 

[Trackman]

Martin Lewis scam adverts have begun appearing on this forum over the last few days. These have been all over Facebook and Twitter and Youtube recently and he often warns about it himself. But first time i have seen it on this forum. I have seen it at least fifteen to twenty times on the forum today and yesterday.


When you click the advert it takes you to a hilariously bad laughable fake BBC news page:

It is an entire fake BBC news article about an interview that never happened where Martin Lewis reveals a secret to getting rich quick. It is just a scam to get you to "invest" in a scam site that will steal all your money and of course Martin Lewis has no involvement. All those comments from "customers" at the botton of the page are fake reviews. It is just a massive scam.



It would be great if the forum could try to block these adverts too if the forum admin staff have the ability to do so.

Interesting how they withdrew £4,000 from an ATM in one visit.

 

[styles]

Interesting how they withdrew £4,000 from an ATM in one visit.

I actually had a problem depositing more than £3000 at an ATM recently, let alone withdrawing it!

 

[Trackman]

I actually had a problem depositing more than £3000 at an ATM recently, let alone withdrawing it!

Good to see its not just me.
Before you stuffed it in an envelope(s) in the branch and posted in the deposit box, last time I had deposit money for a relative it had gone.
Think I tried £400 a time, (it was about 2.5k in total) - but it wasn't having it.
Was given guidance by a member of staff, the trick is to have all the money the way right up (doesn't matter which way) and when you insert the money have it flush before it sucks it in (I think this is the important bit) , rather than feed it in.
I would have gone to the teller, but there was a very long queue, so I persevered.

 

[styles]

Good to see its not just me.
Before you stuffed it in an envelope(s) in the branch and posted in the deposit box, last time I had deposit money for a relative it had gone.
Think I tried £400 a time, (it was about 2.5k in total) - but it wasn't having it.
Was given guidance by a member of staff, the trick is to have all the money the way right up (doesn't matter which way) and when you insert the money have it flush before it sucks it in (I think this is the important bit) , rather than feed it in.
I would have gone to the teller, but there was a very long queue, so I persevered.

The staff situation you describe is what gets me.

I had been fortunate at a poker tournament, and been paid cash, a bit ridiculous. I prefer paying cash for things but I also don't really want to carry large amounts of cash or keep them under my mattress.

The tournament finished at say 4am on a Friday, so it's 10am on a Saturday before I can get to the bank branch.

I had a £2,500 pre-packaged bag of £50 notes, and then about £700 in £20 notes.

I made one deposit for the £2,500, all went through fine, albeit quite slowly. Printed the receipt, went to make another deposit.

I put the £700 in and it gave some generic message, like, "Your deposit has been rejected. Please try again later." So, naturally, I tried it again, still didn't work. I found a corner and inspected all the notes in case there was a bit of paper in there or some obviously fake note or something, nope.

However, there were I think 5 members of branch staff all huddled round this podium at the entrance having a chuckle about something. No queueing area, so I just wandered over and tried to work out which person's attention to get. I get one staff member's attention and the whole groups stops talking/laughing, and I explain what's happened. She asks me how much I deposited/tried to deposit. She then says to me something like the daily limit is £2,000. I say it can't be because I just deposited £2,500 successfully. Then another from the group steps in and asks me how much I've deposited that month. I say well £2,500 successfully and £700 unsuccessfully (I only play tournaments like once a quarter and I win even less often!) She asks is that the total this month, no other deposits etc, I say no that's it. She then says it's a maximum £3,000 per month. So I thank them, go back to the ATM, and successfully deposit £500 no problem.

It irritated me a bit because:

1. Why couldn't the machine just tell me the deposit was rejected due to exceeding the deposit allowances?
2. Even better, why couldn't it tell me what the deposit allowances actually were?
3. The branch had no counter, only meeting rooms, but I feel like if I'd gone to a counter this would've been sorted much quicker?
4. 5 staff members stood around having a laugh is fine (I'm human, if I had nothing to do, I'd be having a chat as well, no issue with the staff from my side), but if they're all stood around doing nothing, doesn't this negate most of the cost savings of just having a counter service?

This is truly off-topic at this point though so expect the comment to be moved!

 

[Silver Cobra]

Quite apart from the obvious "too good to be true" red flags, the repeated references to "cell phones" on what was supposedly a BBC interview with a British interviewee, is something of a giveaway. Unfortunately one day the scammers will get wise to these nuances and become more convincing.

Also the fact this was supposedly a televised interview for Good Morning Britain rather than BBC Breakfast/News, despite the fact that Sally Nugent works for the BBC and not ITV.

 

[jthjth]

Also the fact this was supposedly a televised interview for Good Morning Britain rather than BBC Breakfast/News, despite the fact that Sally Nugent works for the BBC and not ITV.

Adverts don’t have to be the only way of funding a forum. Another one I’m a member of has a funding “thermometer”. Each month a target amount is set. People make donations and the donated total creeps towards the total as the month goes on. Usually the amount donated each month exceeds the target.
Adverts are a blight.

 

[najaB]

Usually the amount donated each month exceeds the target.

Usually. And if it doesn't?

Adverts are a blight.

Bad adverts are a blight. I really can't be bothered getting annoyed by the ones on this forum, to be honest 99% of the time I don't even consciously notice them.

 

[jthjth]

Usually. And if it doesn't?

Bad adverts are a blight. I really can't be bothered getting annoyed by the ones on this forum, to be honest 99% of the time I don't even consciously notice them.

I’ve never seen that forum fail to meet its monthly target. Its membership is far smaller than this one. A year or two back it temporarily significantly raised the target in order to replace some hardware. That too was met. This is a different model to sites that demand an annual fixed subscription. They generally fail to attract the required income.

is there such a thing as good advertising on the Internet? There’s well documented instances of malware being propagated by adverts, ones being served by the major outfits. If you believe Google’s AI (somewhat ironic in this context) 0.5% of all advert impressions in the UK present a security risk. (1 in every 200 adverts). That aside, there’s the privacy aspects of the tracking employed, and then the low quality deceptive adverts that appear to be the bread and butter of Internet adverts.

 

[najaB]

is there such a thing as good advertising on the Internet?

Yes. Next question.

 

[generalnerd]

I got this a few weeks ago, meant to put it here but things got ahead of me.

I’ve also seen a fake bbc news article some time ago, and they’re always so uncanny (I think it was about peston that time though)

 

[duffield]

I'm relieved that the "huge size" adverts and their relations have all now been blocked, I found them highly offensive (extremely misogynistic) and creepy and came close to turning on my adblocker for this site. The remaining ads now seem inoffensive and not very obtrusive.